3D interconnected honeycomb-like and high rate performance porous carbons from petroleum asphalt for supercapacitors

Abstract In this paper, 3D interconnected honeycomb-like hierarchical porous carbons (HPCs) are prepared from petroleum asphalt via in-situ KOH activation in a molten salt medium. As symmetry two electrodes for supercapacitors, HPCs with high specific surface area of 2227 m2 g−1 show high rate performance, i.e. 265 F g−1 at 0.05 A g−1, 221 F g−1 at 20 A g−1, and superior cycle stability with 91.1% capacitance retention at 5 A g−1 after 10,000 cycles in 6 M KOH electrolyte. This facile strategy to prepare massive HPCs from cheap petroleum asphalt can provide high performance electrode materials for energy storage devices.